A hamlet morphs into suburb.

I don't want October to end. This has been a fine one. Three-quarters of the way through my favorite month I have to look around me and say, this is good. I have a theory …

"What do you want to be?" A classroom full of scruffy, grubby, teenaged boys and primped, upright girls. I'm drawing Transformers and comic-book characters on my desk. Optimus Prime and Wolverine. "If you don't know …

The director tries to lose the viewer in a maze of flashbacks-within-flashbacks.

Hillbilly Gothic: A Memoir of Madness and Motherhood FROM THE BOOK JACKET: "My family has a grand tradition. After a woman gives birth, she goes mad. I thought that I would be the one to …

Once in a while the Box recommends a book for your consideration. It has to be a sports book and it has to be brilliant. At hand is such a book: The Blind Side: Evolution …

Thirty Years Ago Lou Conde said he doesn't care about clean air or open beaches. Lou Conde doesn't want any more Free Clinics. Lou Conde wants to cut off jobs from the government. We don't …

On certain crystal-clear days (most common between late October and March), the looping hike over East Mountain on Santa Catalina Island affords an ever-changing panorama of the blue ocean, San Clemente Island to the south, …

"Each one win one" and "Go ye therefore..." read the raised foam letters on the back wall of Mira Mesa Bible Baptist Church. Below these exhortations hung rows of framed, typewritten missives from Baptist missionaries, …

My job often takes me to the Gaslamp, that hotbed of perpetual restaurant openings, and when I spot a newbie, I usually glance at the menu before strolling on. At Gourmet India, a small, simple-looking …

That's the thing with magic. You've got to know it's still here, all around us, or it just stays invisible for you. -- Charles de Lint 'Two amazingly synchronistic things happened to me this morning, …

San Diego's jockstrap plutocrats, with support and succor from city councilmember Scott Peters, are muscling in on land that belongs to the public, say critics. It's happening in two places: on the beach in front …

Jose Esteban held a rolled-up poster under one arm and his two-year-old daughter with the other as he walked toward Washington Avenue from the west side of the Escondido City Hall. Inside, that Wednesday evening, …

Last Friday's Union-Tribune featured a front-page story from the Wall Street Journal about the growing number of "learning-disabled workers" who have complained to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission under the Americans with Disabilities Act …

Anyone living downriver from the Lake Hodges Dam, just north of Rancho Bernardo, might wish to take note. The City of San Diego is spending "not-to-exceed" $159,026 on a consultant who is supposed to find …

State senator Christine Kehoe -- who carried Senate Bill 1627 this year to loosen local limitations on cell-phone-tower expansions, which was recently signed into law by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger -- has continued to rake in …

My 82-year-old dad is like a character from a 1950s horror movie. All year long, he's a retired suburban gentleman who goes to church on Sunday, keeps his lawn mowed short, and waves to the …

Hallelujah, it's hammer time What a wonderful, unusual experience I had last night. Our Belizean babysitter is a preacher's daughter, and together with her parents she has been following some kind of Bible study for …

I heard about a party for a company called CH1 Productions. As I drove to the Clairemont location, I assumed it would be in a studio, but it was a house with a RockStar Energy …

'The Alaskan gray wolves here eat beef, chicken, goat, horses [when donated], deer, and some fish, on occasion, that is donated by the Navy," says Melinda Booth, development manager of the California Wolf Center. "Deer …

Singer/songwriter/guitarist Todd Dulawan has an issue with the way bands are booked for the third annual San Diego Indie Music Fest scheduled for March 3, 2007. "Most of the slots reserved are for bands that …

At 7:30 p.m. on October 3, local rapper Brendan B was on his way home from a Newport Avenue bar in Ocean Beach. "I was cutting through an alley, and two guys came out of …

"They picked us over Channel 9-3-3 and Z-90 because they thought we were the station with the most high school appeal," says Blazin' 98.9's Cesar "DJ Seize" Gonzalez. P Diddy's appearance at Chula Vista High …

A couple of weeks ago, before he played the Killers' unreleased single "Sam's Town," 91X morning DJ Chris Cantore asserted that it was a "leak"; the song's airing was unauthorized by the record company. "That …

'I'm overjoyed whenever I see references to Mexican wine in the literature.'

Bands often leave their hometown for greener pastures, but Tristeza left town because of their lack of green. "It's sad when a practice room costs the same as an apartment," says Tristeza drummer James Lehner. …

"Every time I open my mail, someone has sent me the most important recording in their home," says audio-restoration specialist Eric Van der Wyk of his King Tet Productions. "People send me cassettes, reel-to-reels, and …

TO: Matt Alice: President Clinton and President Bush the Uno, in the TV commercial asking for donations for tsunami relief, I'm sure volunteered their time. But do they receive residuals when the commercial plays? And …

Heymatt: It seems like I just did something that really pissed off my girlfriend. While I try to figure out what it was, I think I need a gift for her. What's the most expensive …

“If you leave here with an empty stomach, it’s your own fault.”